Man City submit transfer bid for teenage sensation

Tom Weber

• Updated: 20 Mar 2023 09:55 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester City have submitted a first bid for Croatian starlet Luka Vuskovic.

The 16-year-old Hajduk Split defender is the latest in a long list of highly-rated young talents to emerge from Croatia, a list that includes Josko Gvardiol, who came through the academy of Split's hated rivals Dinamo Zagreb.

READ: Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City in transfer battle for Gvardiol

According to The Athletic's David Ornstein, several elite clubs are monitoring Vuskovic, and City have now thrown the first punch in what could eventually evolve into a bidding war considering the Croatian is one of Europe's biggest prospects at the moment.

The Manchester club are understood to have made an initial €12million offer that would see them pay €10m upfront and a potential €2m in add-ons, reports Ornstein.

The bid from last season's Premier League champions "has neither been accepted nor rejected."

Who is Luka Vuskovic?

Despite his age, Luka Vuskovic is already a towering presence in central defence, standing at an imposing 1.93 metres (6 feet 3 inches) tall.

Vuskovic impressed at the youth level so much that he's recently been called up to Hajduk's first team, playing the full 90 minutes in each of the four games he has been selected for and keeping two clean sheets in his most recent outings after conceding eight goals across his first two matches.

A regular fixture in the Prva HNL - Juniori, the Croatian youth league, before his promotion, the tall defender chipped in with an impressive six goals in 13 games at that level.

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Most eye-catching of all have been his performances in Split's fairytale run in the UEFA Youth League, starting in the U19 competition at just 15 years of age and scoring twice. Hajduk's U19s will face AC Milan in the Youth League semi-final on April 21.

If Man City were to see their bid accepted, they certainly would have a special talent for the future on their hands.